Page 97 of To Touch A Silent Fury

I waited for him to paint it all together, to weave the threads of the tapestry from the last five years. My hand drifted over the dragon’s sleeping back, finding comfort in his heat.

“And your Fate?” I asked him. “You finished your Service?”

He grimaced. “Eight years with Groulin.” His mouth pulled downwards. “The last four were heartily the worst.”

“But you have it now, your full powers,” I stated, staring at his Mark. His visions had always been so narrow, and so near in time. How much had it changed? “What do you see?”

Seth sighed. “More than I wish to. I have visions of others, now. My curse is trying to work out when they will happen.” He gripped onto my arm, and his eyes were thick with unshed tears. “I wish only that I had seen you coming back. A vision of you, sat here with me now, would have kept me going far better through the years.”

My bottom lip wobbled. “I wish you had seen me, too. But I am here now.”

“And you have returned to marry Langnathin?” His question was full of grim resignation. “He killed our cousin, Tani. Without blinking.”

I shuddered. I had hardly forgotten. Brascillan, a man who had once wanted my hand. Their cousin. A second son and strong duellist, burnt to death in his prime.

“I overheard a conversation back on Eavenfold, when the Dragon Prince visited,” I said, measuring my words. “He spoke of an ancient weapon to be found in Gossamir. When I realised my Fate was to marry Langnathin, I knew he would never marry me if he would burn his own men to prevent me from gaining my power.” I shrugged at Seth. “And so, I travelled to Gossamir.I thought if I found the ancient weapon myself, I could claim it and trade it with him in exchange for his hand. If I could convince him I was no threat, that I was Broken… I hadn’t really thought it through. But then I discovered the truth of the weapon.”

Seth nodded, knowing the answer. “Vellintris’ last egg.”

“The egg was hope,” I admitted. “I could change my hair, my clothes, but I could never change my eyes. Langnathin would have always known who I was and likely rejected me for it. But with a bonded dragon, I could be someone else.”

“Vorska of Gossamir,” Seth said. “You know, Braxthorn has tasked me with discovering more about you. Your heritage.”

“Vorska exists,” I said. “She is a young woman of a forest tribe, and she travelled to Gossamir as a child with her mother. Just as I told him. Though I would be obliged if you wouldn’t tell him that she remains there to this day.”

Seth stood up then, his hands clenching at his side as he paced across the room. He whirled around and gasped. “I can’t believe this is all happening. I cannot believe you arehere.”

I smiled sadly. “I am very glad that you are here. I need all the friends I can get.”

He shook his head. “You know Braxthorn has lined up his own brides for Langnathin, and he’s only given him a season to pick from them. He’s the Crown Prince. He’ll never marry you, not when he believes you’re a backwards forest dweller who got lucky and found the egg first.”

I stiffened.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That wasn’t—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted. “I know you weren’t being cruel. Even with a dragon at my side, having no title would make my odds slim. And yet, slim odds are the best I’ve had in some time.”

“But if he accepts you, your Fate will be met. You will be Marked and known by all as a child of Eavenfold,” Seth argued.

I nodded. “Yes, I have thought of this. But he would have married me in front of the world. I know his pride, and Braxthorn’s. I have seen it. They might choose to claim they knew of my power all along. Attempt to use me for their benefit. I only know I cannot let him win.”

“You would risk everything on your impression of his pride?” Seth asked.

I shook my head. “No. I risk everything for myself. If I tell the world the truth, that I am not Broken, then his family will kill me as they tried before, or find a new way to Break me. If I do not meet my Fate, and the whole world believes me Broken, then again, I am nothing. What place will accept me? There is no place for a male Broken, and I was not even blessed with that. My whole life will be what it has been for the last five years: a lie I tell people to stay alive. I will not let them bully me away from the life the Threads chose for me. I want to help this world, not fade into its frayed edges.”

Seth paced back to the window by the bed, peeking through the curtains towards the small courtyard. I thought again of the Dragon Prince finding me in the tree. There was an intimacy to that moment, almost a wistfulness, like it was a fragment of the full moon and now it was gone. A trick of a witching hour, placing us together.

Seth turned to me with a determined look. “Months after we returned to Eavenfold, after I thought you were Broken… Theollan returned.”

At first, the name fell into my mind dully, like metal awaiting the hammer. Then it clanged. “The Knowledge Fate,” I said. “The one tasked with working out how a woman could ever be a Brother.”

Seth nodded. “He didn’t find the answer, and he never made his Mark. But he found something else.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What is it?”

“Tell me something, Tani, and tell me true. If you succeed, they will discover who you really are. There will be no hiding it. The king will ask this of you.”

I wrinkled my nose. I had very rarely lied to him, and never maliciously. I could not think why I would start now. “What, Seth?”